


Light for Eternity

by StultusAlio



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, The Void
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:48:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25047919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StultusAlio/pseuds/StultusAlio
Summary: The same phrase seemed to repeat in the same voice again, same tone “...I think we’re near the woods…” Lily looked over the phone to her friend.“That’s Jacks voice...on Sammy’s phone..."
Relationships: Ben Arnold/Emily Potter, Katie Lynch/Lily Wright, Sammy Stevens/Jack Wright
Comments: 9
Kudos: 24





	1. Seven for Secret Never Told

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> First and foremost this is unbetaed and probably horribly edited, so sorry bout that. 
> 
> secondly this story came about because I had an idea of a scene, I wrote that scene and then I formed a story around it. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy

Emily and Lily sat close together on the couch of the new house. The new house which had enough rooms for each of them to have their own space. As their investigation had gone on having separate residence had grown dangerous and they came up with the best solution. A house where they all could protect each other and have a place to lay their heads. 

Of course there were nights when Lily took refuge at Deputy Lynch’s house or nights when Emily couldn’t sleep with the settling sounds of the house and took refuge in picking through the wreckage of the library. Sammy seemed to take refuge on hikes and nature trails, sometimes even at Lake Hatchenhaw. Ben was the only one who never strayed to far when he need to get away. His refuge was a conspiracy lounge in the unattached garage that came with house. Luckily the conspiracies Ben focused on out there were ones like tracking the moth-man across the country or sites where the Men in Black turned up. Something a little more mundane then their current issues.

When they had moved into the house, Ben had gotten most of his furniture from the apartment to start to flesh out the place. Some of the older furniture was thrown out or giving to the local thrift shop. He even collected some stuff he had been storing at his mothers place now that he had a place large enough to store more stuff. The old couch Lily had been using as a bed was moved into his conspiracy den. 

Emily emptied out her apartment as well. She, however, didn’t break the lease. She kept paying for the place, but was mostly using it as a front to keep Greg Frickard from looking into their new place. She hoped Frickard would just focus completely on the apartment and never darken her door again. Her living room set became _their_ living room set. Her tchotchkes and books filled out a good number of shared corners in the house. Her spare bed became Lily’s bed. 

Lily had the least amount of baggage to bring into the house. She literally only had the two suitcases she had been living out of for months. She had more things of course, but they were all in a storage unit on the other side of the country. If this did become a permanent home she would have to find a way to get her things from there to here. That was not a now issue though.

Sammy with the help of the others had brought the rest of his furniture and personal items from his storage locker. It had taken a weekend to clean out the locker and then another week to move it all into the house. There were boxes of linens and towels. Boxes of kitchenware and matching dish sets. There were boxes of mundane decorations, all these little things Sammy hadn’t allowed himself to bring out to fill a home. Finally there were boxes Sammy had piled in the basement and only casually mentioned they were unimportant, but please don’t touch. 

Lily hadn’t cared though, one evening when the boys had been at work at the radio station and Emily had decided to clean through the books at the library she went into the basement and started rifling through the plastic bins. The first one she opened was filled to the brim with memorabilia from the boys’ time Disc Jockeying in LA. Signed images, letters and notes from people they met. The second box was filled with her brothers clothes. She pulled an old sweater from the box that she remembered him wearing often enough and lifted it to her nose. After what she assumed to be years in this box it still had the faint scent of her brothers aftershave seemingly woven into the fibers. She ended up squirreling that sweater away into her bedroom where she would wear it on occasion when she was cold or lonely or just missing her brother.

The final few boxes were filled to the brim with framed photos, albums and what seemed to be a journal or two that belonged to Sammy. She looked through the framed photos and saw pictures of the boys with famous people she could only dream of meeting. The albums were more personal though, they showed moments in Jack and Sammy’s life that were happier. Simple photos like the both of them on the top of a mountain obviously taken by other hikers. Or the back of one sitting on the pier with their legs in the water as the sun dipped behind the trees. One of the holding ducklings. One of them cheesing it for the camera with a melting ice cream in their hands. Small moments with smiles and happiness that she hadn’t been privy to since their college days. She stole one of the photos of both of her boys smiling just so she could remind herself of what they were working for when things got rough.

She had debated with herself if she should read the journals. As a friend she knew she shouldn’t, but as a journalist she had to have the whole picture. She regretted it and felt saddened by it, but also glad in a small aspect for understanding just a little more of what was going on in LA without her. There was a journal entry with a letter stuffed by it that stuck with her the most.

“Got another one today. They say it’s fine though, I hope that’s true. I don’t want to do this anymore, but Jack just got the show he’s been dying to make these past few years. Some conspiracy theory, supernatural ghost show or something like that. I hope he understands when my contract is up I am not resigning. What am I saying, he’ll understand. I am just sorry that it took me this long to get here. That it took these threats to realize it…”

A lot of the entries were vague and filled with self deprecation. She knew Sammy had, had self esteem issues, but she had thought her brother had been helping him through it more. The letters that were shoved into the journals were death threats which was equally surprising. Did Jack know about them? From the way the journal entries spoke, her brother only probably knew about half of them. It worried her that she had known about none of them before this moment. Her brother had never mentioned them during their calls. Either way when they got her brother back they were talking about this and burning these journals. Sammy was doing better and he had to let go of this part of the past. 

Lily tried to focus. Her and Emily had been running through Jack’s notebooks that had been in one of the approved to be shared bins after their last run in with the Shadow-maker. Between Jack’s notebooks and Ben’s notebooks they believed they had finally started making headway on how to save those taken by the void, even if it was just hearsay based off of two conspiracy theorists ideas of from “Death by Damnation”.

They had started to notice a pattern in those who had been taken by the voids, behavior, which included obsession in the supernatural of King Falls or the obsession of a tome about the occult around the area. The second thing they noticed with Emily’s extensive research of the town, that these disappearances hadn’t started until Harrison Beauregard had lost his entire family. It all seemed simple enough of a connection, but there was no way to get HFB3 to help them or even just give them information. God what they wouldn’t do for some first-hand accounts, some primary sources. He was staunch in his beliefs that they were out to destroy him and the town, even though he seemed to be also more connected to the problems of the town, but a person will see what they want to see.

They had just come across a passage that Ben had copied down that they had originally ignored because they had been trying to deal with the whole “the one” issue. It was a statement that the end of torment would come from a person who had a soul of light, who had lived a life in darkness and a soul of darkness, who lived in eternal light. It was a strange phrase to have missed the first time through, almost as if it had just appeared _after_ they had figured out they had all been chosen for different roles.

Lily leaned back into the couch with a sigh, it was impossible to refocus. She often wished that this was all just nonsense. That monsters weren’t real, that aliens didn’t exist, that time adjacent voids didn’t kidnap people on a whim. She wanted to go back to easier days of reporting in Aleppo as the bombs dropped, or even the corruption of the Vatican protecting the priests. Somehow these intangible things were harder for her to handle. Especially with how the people she had come to care about were affected by them. How ingrained the town was with the supernatural. These things which were right in front of her eyes almost daily, felt further away then any other situation she had gotten herself into.

“What does that even mean,” Lily whined to Emily about the statement they had both just read, “first there was the four of us who all had a part, but now there is more? How is it that there are more people being added every day to this supposed prophecy.” 

She just didn’t understand. There always seemed to be a further and further goal to these prophecies to the point that she was losing hope of ever seeing her brother again. God she would give anything just to see him once more. No, she rephrased mentally, she wouldn’t give anything. What she would give anything for was just to know he was at peace finally. Whatever had happened, he didn’t need to be in constant torment. 

She grumbled out a noise of dissatisfaction as Emily tried to mumble out an answer to her potentially hypothetical questions. She rubbed her face absentmindedly with her hand and ignored any actual answer she may have given out instead deciding to leverage herself from the couch and head towards the kitchen.

“Want some coffee?” Lily asked already pulling out two mugs. Emily did a confirming mumbling type noise as Lily filled the mugs. She put a dash of creamer and sugar in the one for Emily and her specialty half and half in her own and traveled back to the couch, placing Emily’s cup far enough from the edge of the table and far enough from the books. There was a special order of operations for the librarian that Lily had learned over the long months of researching with her. 

In the background she could hear Sammy and Ben signing off for the weekend. The Weekend news anchor would be taking over for them as soon as the commercials were over. Most evenings when neither of them could sleep they would listen to the show and research. They had started listening religiously after the death of Roland had been aired, just so they would have proof from someone else other than those who were experiencing the event. Having a second party witness what was happening helped with peace of mind better than having someone ply you with platitudes and say they believed you.

Lily sighed into her coffee mug and startled as her phone started ringing. She placed her mug down, making sure, of course, that it was the perfect distance away from the papers spread on the coffee table. She looked at the caller ID seeing Sammy’s number pop up.

“What do you want, didn’t you literally just get off air.” She asked maybe a bit too snidely. She should have just said hello, but old habits died hard. She wondered if maybe he was calling to ask their order for breakfast, or even just calling to ask them to meet at Rose’s for breakfast.

Instead of an answer there was silence echoed down the line.

“Hello” She called into the receiver again. There was no real answer again “What the hell Stevens, did you butt dial me?” She yelled into the receiver.

Through the static on the phone there was some bird song ringing in the distance on the call followed by a voice fading in. “…..I think we’re near the woods….” Lily was dumbfounded. That was not Sammy’s voice, but still a very familiar voice. 

“...Jack” she gasped into the static. After that statement Emily’s attention was caught. She looked up and over to the other woman in confusion. Had she just said Jack. Lily looked worried to her and turned the phone on to speaker so she could hear if the voice answer or spoke again. 

The same phrase seemed to repeat in the same voice again, same tone “...I think we’re near the woods…” Lily looked over the phone to her friend.

“That’s Jacks voice...on Sammy’s phone. The woods….the woods. Do you think, maybe they are in Perdition woods?” she asked so pensively and sad.

Emily started to reply in the negative, but Lily was already yelling through her phone. “Whose we, Jack, JACK...come on you jerk just respond, please.” She was up off the couch and working on grabbing her keys to the car. Before Emily even realized it, Lily was out the door. Emily quickly got up to follow after her friend. She grabbed her phone and rushed out the door. Emily had hopped into Lily’s little four door sedan before even thinking about if she had locked the door to the house. She couldn’t worry about that, the boys would be home soon.

OH god the boys would be home soon, would walk through the front door and come face to face with the mess they had just left. They would think they had been kidnapped. Emily realized that they were half way down the road out towards route 72 before she even got her seat belt buckled. Lily was driving like a bat out of hell. 

“Lily” Emily tried to get her friends attention “Lily did you call Sammy’s phone back.”

“No, I didn’t” she replied in a huff “It doesn’t matter.”

“It sort of does.”

“It really doesn’t, it’s a lead I am taking the lead.”

“What if something had happened to Sammy and that was just the Void using both his phone and your brother’s voice to get you to come out to Perdition Woods while it’s still pretty dark out.”  
“I really don’t care, anyways we just heard the boys on the show, there was no interference during the broadcast. “

“Something could have happened..” she was cut off by Lily

“Look, we will go there and take a look around and head back. Nothing” she paused really thinking about it “Nothings happened to the boys. Look at it this way we are just going on an early morning trek to take a quick peek and then we will go right home. I swear to you, right home.” Lily just looked at Emily for a moment as she took the next turn to Perdition Woods.

Emily was not pleased at all. She looked to her phone and debated for a moment. She at first was going to call Ben to tell him what was going on, but that would lead to a long and arduous conversation that no one would win in. Instead she took the cowardly way out and texted Ben.

**_“Lily and I are going out for a drive. Be back soon xoxoxo”_**

Ben was quick to reply.

**_So early in the am_**

**_where r u goin_**

**_we r stoppin @ Rose’s want anything_**

Emily sighed, Ben was a stream of consciousness type of texter. He never pulled all his thoughts into one text message. She ignored the first two texts, again, she should know better. 

**_Sure! Coffee, you know how we like it ;) and some pancake puppies!_**

She heard her phone going off again, but she knew. She knew if she picked it up to respond there would be more “Where are you going” messages and she would have to tell them. She knew better she really did, but she put her phone down as they pulled into the parking lot near the beginning of the trail.

“Do you think?” Lily paused slightly watching the suns light filter through the trees, just beginning to crest over the hike in front of them. 

Emily didn’t respond, if she did, she would have to tell the truth and that would break both of their hearts. The years of research were beginning to weigh heavy on her, but she wanted to keep the others hope going. She didn’t want Lily to start drinking heavy again, or Ben to lose himself to anxiety or god forbid Sammy try to kill himself again. 

She sighed and exited the car head towards the trail with Lily not to far behind her. The girls kept pace easily listening to the silence of the woods around them. The birds had been singing at the start of the trail, but they could no longer hear them. Lily overtook Emily in the silence and started to walk faster up the path way. 

She watched Lily and realized it was like watching a puppet be pulled by a string or a fish hooked reeled quickly in. Emily hadn’t even realized how far ahead Lily was until she saw her crest the trail end through the copse of trees. By the time she caught up with Lily she was in Debbie’s clutches literally.

“Well, well, well, The Strength _and_ The Unwritten one” The lithe woman bit out as she slammed Lily’s head into a nearby tree.

____________________

On the table in the empty house an impossible wind rifled through the pages of Jack’s notebook. The pages flipped slowly at first, but gained speed as an unseen force guided the pages over. Finally it stopped on a page that the others had yet to get to. One that had seemed previously blank.

The passage now on the page glowed slightly:

_All pawns must move before the end  
_

_and the shadows may defend but only two offerings  
can bring a halt:   
the one made for power  
brings the darkest hour   
or the one for heart  
the brightest start._ 


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It only gets worse from here.....
> 
> If you made it here there are a few things I'd like to note,
> 
> I haven't written fanfic in 10 years and even then I never finished posting a story. I am telling you this because hey why not, but don't worry. I have the whole story already written, I am just pulling out where each chapter is and editing the best I can. Finally the ending of the story, while written needs restructuring so I am doing that. I will probably post a chapter a week till it's done.
> 
> Cheers.


	2. Thirteen Beware It's the Devil Himself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When he crested the last hill himself his fatigue gave way to a scene that was so very disjointed to him.
> 
> Near his feet was Lily. She was spread out and limp with blood running down her head. Her mouth was slightly ajar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't inspired by the following song, but it literally popped in my head while editing and it really ends up fitting Sammy a little too well.
> 
> "Running up that hill" covered by Placebo

Ben looked down at his phone and frowned again. Emily hadn’t responded to his question of where they had been driving to. It was fine she didn’t need to tell him where she was every minute of everyday, but it was still barely after 6 in the morning. A time that usually would be classified as a strange time to go for a drive. Something about the situation bothered him.

He texted her a few more times as he waited for their food order to come out. Sammy had taken the coffees to the car already and Ben had promised to wait for the food this time.

By the time he got back to the car with the food he was ratcheted up with tension with the fact that Emily had yet to respond. He took a deep breath trying to calm himself.

“Something wrong?” Sammy asked as he turned the key in the ignition, pulling the car back out onto the main stretch of road towards the house. 

“No…” Ben started “...yeah, Emily said that she and Lily were going for a drive and it’s just weird”

Sammy made a grumbled noise just to make sure Ben knew he was listening or paying attention. Ben would have continued either way, but luckily he was saved from the worry because Ben’s phone went off again.

“Oh It’s Emily! She’s finally responded back,” He announced unnecessarily before unlocking his phone.

“Maybe they are already home,” Sammy tried his best to be positive.

“No” Ben said nearly after Sammy had spoken.

“What…? Okay they aren’t hom..”

“No, I mean yeah No! They,” Ben cut him off again.

“They what. Ben, they what,” Sammy gripped the steering wheel of his car tighter, his anxiety slowly growing by the minute when Ben wasn’t saying clearly what was going on, but it was obviously not good.

“They went to fucking Perdition Woods” Ben squeaked out. 

“No.”

“Yes!”

“How do you know?” Sammy questioned so very worried now.

“The text from Emily Literally Says They Went TO GODDAMN PERDITION WOODS” Ben slowly raised his voice in worry.

“Okay, it’s okay” Sammy tried to assuage Ben's worry even though he very much wanted to panic too.

“It’s really not, What the HELLLLL are they thinking” Ben's tone started to reach the pitch where only dogs would be able to hear him.

Sammy didn’t respond right away. He had already turned his car onto the highway. Whatever was going on they were going to Perdition Woods at best to find the girls in the parking lot with some damn good excuse and at worse... He stopped thinking, there was no at worse. The girls had just had a momentary lapse in judgment and were currently sitting in their car near the trail head. They would meet up with them and have a discussion as to why this happened and head back home. No harm no foul. 

Ben was mid rant by the time Sammy pulled his car into the parking lot at the trail head. Ben cocked his head from side to side. 

“How did you know what I was going to ask you to do?”

Sammy just looked over at him as he threw the car into park next to Lily’s car. Of course they were going to come out to Perdition Woods if the girls were there. Of course, what if Debbie had gotten them. Or what if the void had called them. Or if Frickard had gone crazy and tried to kidnap them. Or even what if they just wanted a jaunt in the woods even though it was such a horrible idea. 

Ben was already out the door before he had turned off the car. He ran over to the girls car looking through the passenger side window to see if they were sitting in the car. Even though it was visible from the car the moment they drove up that no on was in the car. He thought maybe they had just leaned back in their seats, laid out in the car, and that was why they hadn’t seen them. Unfortunately that was far from the truth. The car was empty and even worse he noticed that Emily’s phone was on the front seat.

“Emily left her phone, but also she just like texted me less than 10 minutes ago, so they shouldn’t be too far ahead of us,” Ben said as he walked to the Kiosk post near the trail head. 

Sammy barely heard Ben’s explanation as he got out of the car and started heading towards the trail, towards Ben. In a flash Ben was running up the Trail.

“What the….” Sammy started as he watched Ben shot off so quickly. He took a deep breathe and decided what to do. After a moment he ran into the woods after Ben and a moment later he was running past Ben. He had a bad feeling about this and felt like he had to make it to the clearing as quickly as possible. He didn’t slow down even though he knew that Ben was falling behind. He felt a tug in his chest that was telling him he had to go quicker and quicker and quicker still.

Ben was panting when he finally looked up to see Sammy quickly outpacing him up the hill. The space growing between them was exponential and he was now regretting skipping out on a lot of those hikes Sammy had invited him on. These past few months he was so deep into the research, or at least that’s what he told himself that he didn’t take calming breaks like Sammy found time to do. He only found time to look into other mysteries in what he deemed free time. He also didn’t realize how fit his best friend had become.

“Fuckkkkk,” he hissed through more pants as he saw Sammy breaking through the final line of trees separating the trail from the Devil’s doorstep. For some reason all he could think about was Debbie somehow being behind all this. It felt all too staged for it to be any other way. That woman creature had been the Shadow-maker the whole time who was consistently using those she had trapped previously as pawns and misdirects. She had worked the victim angle well enough that Sammy’s original fear had been replaced with the need to protect someone. 

Ben followed suit, but Emily and Lily had been wary of letting the supposed victim closer. They had been right in the end. She had been begging them to go to Perdition woods through her whole tenure as a friend and confidant of the four. That’s why Ben believed wholeheartedly that it was that thing behind the girls being out in the woods so early in the morning.

When he crested the last hill himself his fatigue gave way to a scene that was so very disjointed to him.

Near his feet was Lily. She was spread out and limp with blood running down her head. Her mouth was slightly ajar and he saw her chest rise and sink and rise and sink. That was good, she was still alive, still breathing.

What startled him more about the scene was he saw Sammy skidding to a stop whole body shoving Emily away from Debbie. She seemed to have no balance and fell face first onto the ground beside them. Beside the devils doorstep. He realized that Debbie had, had Emily cornered in front of the opening and Sammy had pushed her out of the way. That’s right Sammy wasn’t trying to cause Emily harm, that’s good.

The scene only seemed to get stranger while he stood at the mouth of the trail exit panting. It looked as though Debbie had been going for a punch and had shoved her hand against Sammy’s ribs. For just a moment it looked strangely intimate, followed by an audible gasp from Sammy. He couldn’t image the lithe woman would have enough strength to punch Sammy that hard. 

Debbie started pulling her hand away and the sun caught a glint of a knife lodged firmly in his friend. Debbie pulled the knife fully out and Ben realized what had happened. Sammy had pushed Emily out of the way of a malicious strike. He had saved Emily at the price of himself. What in the world had Sammy been thinking. Was that a fair thought? If Ben had, had a choice he would have obviously chosen neither! None even. None of the people he love should be stabbed. 

He watched his friend stumbling and grabbing towards Debbie. He had gotten her in a hug to stabilize himself, keep himself from falling over, but it also looked as if Debbie could no longer move against the man. The stabilizing affect had only worked a moment. His weight started to pull the both of them backwards. The body Debbie had chosen was smaller and slighter then Sammy and unable to balance his already backwards motion which led to them both falling into the Devil’s doorstep. Disappearing into the abyss. 

“Sa…..SAMMY,” Ben screamed as he ran towards the doorstep. The darkness of the chasm seemed to stretch on forever. They were gone. He did one of the dumbest things he could ever do and tried to put his hand into the darkness, but there was a barrier of a sort that was pushing him back. This must had been what Sammy had gone through his first time up here. Rejected from saving someone he loved with no real direction of where to go from here. 

“No...no no nonononono” he whined as he felt an arm wrap around his waist and pull him bodily away from the entrance. There wasn’t much weight behind the pulls, but with all the feelings that were draining from him, he allowed himself to be pulled away. As they started to move away from the cave a laugh came from the darkness. For a moment they expect Debbie to step back out, but the laughing stopped and nothing happened.

“Ben…” the whisper came from the body behind him, which turned into a hug instead of a pull “, Ben we can’t…”

“I know…” he cut her off. He did. Did she not just see the opening reject him. 

“We have…”

“I know,” He snipped before physically turning in her grasp to look at Emily.

“I’m sorry,” he let go of a breathe taking his hand to push her hair back behind her ear “, are you okay,” he tried to ask without a sob in his voice and failed. 

“...I’m…..fine...Sammy knocked me out of the way before she could...before it could,” She stopped herself to look towards Lily’s prone form. She had heard a groan coming from her. She used this distraction to not finish her thought and led Ben over to their fallen friend. 

Emily let go of Ben and knelt down next to Lily.

“What happened? Why were you guys even out here..” He asked as Emily started to run her fingers through Lily’s hair to check on the wound. The cut above her eye was small, but head wounds were notorious for bleeding. 

“Lily got a call from Sammy,” Emily said without looking back to Ben.

“That makes no sense. I was with him all evening and he never took out his phone. He had in fact, placed his phone in his pocket while...glaring at me because I kept texting you during the broadcast.”

“I know, I understand all that” She said as Lily groaned again, starting to come to her senses., ”It was Sammy’s phone calling, but it wasn’t Sammy on the phone. It was Jack.”

Ben huffed and while doing so another tear fell from his eyes. With a heavy hand he rubbed vigorously at his eyes. He wanted to stop crying, he really did, but every breath he took he was reminded of the gasp Sammy took not five minutes ago. God it had only been five minutes since he watched his best friend plummet into darkness. Even before that it was almost Emily who was sent into darkness. The whole situation was too ridiculous to allow him to stop crying.

“It was a trap,” he managed through a long suffering tone.

“I know,” Emily snapped back this time looking back at Ben, “I know that now. He sounded like an echo, like he was far away from the phone, talking to someone else. He said “I think we’re near the woods”.”

“IT was Debbie. It had to be. She was setting up a trap,” he repeated.

Lily was finally awake. She groaned as she lifted her head up only to place it in her hands. She looked to be in quite a lot of pain, or at least suffering through a huge headache.

“I’m not so sure about that Short-stack,” She mumbled out.

“What...what does that even mean?”

“Debbie was...startled when I broke through the copse of trees. Surprised even asking me how we knew she was even up here.”

“It was a FUCKING…” before he was even able to finish his statement Lily clapped back.

“She made it really fucking convincing she didn’t know what was going on as she smashed MY face into that goddamn tree right there.”

Lily finally looked up realizing something had been missing the whole time. Another voice had been missing. She scanned behind Emily and then behind Ben. Sweeping over the field behind them leading up to and including the Devils Doorstep. There was no one else in the field beside the three of them. There were no other bodies, no other faces to be seen, not even Debbie’s. 

She finally looked at Emily and Ben’s faces. Emily looked tired with dirt smudging her face and Ben looked red with exertion and dewy from sweat. There was even some tears slipping down his cheeks. It was all adding up, but she did not like the sum she was coming up with.

Her voice caught in her throat, breathe hitched.

_No_ she thought. Sammy was obviously just down the trail a ways because he was lazy or something. Or he was just out of sight. That had to be it, he was just out of sight. He had run off Debbie, or was bring Troy up to the scene. Any number of explanations that she knew didn’t make any sense. She couldn’t help but let her eyes travel around the open area again. 

Nothing, no one else. No noise of a person in the woods. She couldn’t help the response that came next.

“Where’s your taller half? Taking a piss...or…” Lily started ribbing though the normal heat just wasn’t there. The words just sounded small and petered out as she said them. 

Emily finally pulled her hand away from Lily’s head wound only to look away from her. When Emily does this and doesn’t reprimand her for the short joke, she knows something terrible has happened. She tracked Emily’s gaze as it went to Ben and then beyond him, towards the door step.

Lily knew, she knew what that look meant. She did. She really did. She shook her head lightly but still couldn’t bring herself to ask the question she needed to, directly.

“What….” She paused, reformatting her question in her head “What happened after I was knocked around like a rag doll.” Her question was as even in tone as she could make it, while trying to cover the quiver in her voice. 

Emily’s eyes met Ben’s, he was curious too. Curious of what happened if only to understand the moments that led up to a moment where he had been destined to lose a loved one. 

“I..i..” Emily started “I launched for Debbie’s back as she was on you. She knocked me off about the same time she knocked you out and then she, it turned around and looked into my eyes..”

–

Debbie had just dropped the limp body of Lily to the ground near the trail head. With a snarl mixed with a guttural sound which had somewhat of a pleased tone to it, she turned to Emily.

Debbie’s face changed. Not from a smile to a grimace type of change. The slowly rising sun started to fade behind a cloud and the muscles under Debbie’s skin started to contort. The bone and the muscle seemed to be reforming, writhing and reshaping. Or more like there was no physical structure to Debbie’s actual face. Emily shivered watching the movement as she got herself to her feet. 

“Hello Unwritten,” a layer of voices called to her through the creatures throat. 

Emily’s eyes locked with the creatures glowing red eyes that was more prominent because of the natural shade caused by the clouds. Emily just blanked out. She didn’t feel in control. She wasn’t...She couldn’t be as she felt herself moving backwards towards the cave entrance. 

Her body moved without her own volition. She could move her eyes though. She could see the Debbie thing pull out a knife. Her heart started to pound against her rib cage. She was going into a panic. Debbie was going to kill her and all she had to do to fix this situation was telling Benny the truth. Why hadn’t she had just told Ben the moment this all started happening. He and Sammy would be here and they would be able to destroy the Debbie thing. 

“You’ll make a great sacrifice to keep this door open,” the layered voice laughed at the luck it had come across. Fate had worked in its mysterious ways towards the ways of darkness. 

The clouds started to moved and the sun started to reveal the clearing around them again. The shadows power over her was loosened when she heard a familiar voice yell her name. Emily moved her head towards the voice. Then with a sudden impact she found herself on the ground. She heard a gasp and after she regained her senses looked up to the scene. 

Debbie had stabbed Sammy. 

“Sammy!” Emily squeaked out as she watched him start stumbling.

“S’ok,” he murmured, not looking at her. 

“You are for the shadows now,” the thing laughed a moment before startling as Sammy grabbed it. 

“So’re you,” he slurred as he fell backwards into the cave entrance and disappeared completely with Debbie in tow. 

–

Emily stopped talking to once again looked at Lily. 

“So you’re saying…” Lily’s breath hitched she paused to regain bravado, “So you’re saying the void has taken my other fucking brother,” she spat out.

There was silence in the clearing. Only the sounds of their compromised breathing mingled together. With the wind blowing. 

“We need to get them out,” Lily broke the silence. 

“We need to close the void off for good,” Emily spoke quickly after Lily.

“Yeah we need to do both...What of it,” Lily is feeling bitter even though they had all just lost him, not just her. 

“I don’t...I don’t think we can do both.”

“That is just utter BULLSHIT Emily,” they sat in surprise at Ben’s out burst. They had all expected it from Lily, but Ben had done it for her. 

“Listen…” he began as his phone started ringing. Ben was surprised he was getting reception here. 

He pulled out his phone to see Troy was calling.

He answered the phone “Listen Troy, I can’t..” He started to murmur as he was cut off.

“You’re going to want to hear this lil’ buddy.”

_____________

“ _911 what’s your emergency.”_

“ _Hello...I need...I need help...an ambulance?”_

“ _Sir can you tell me what’s happened?”_

“ _My...my...my fiance...was stabbed.”_

“ _Can you tell me what happened?”_

“… _.No?”_

“ _Sir, do you know what happened?”_

“ _No….my head really hurts.”_

“ _It’s okay sir, do you know where you are?”_

“ _I see a sign. It says Eastern Access Lake Hatchenhaw. We’re in the parking lot. There are no cars. No people.”_

“ _Help is on it’s way. Please stay on the line till help arrives. Now sir, can you tell me your name?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to lay out a little bit of my thoughts.
> 
> So as you should know Perdition means eternal damnation and punishment, so aptly meaning Hell, but being nice about it. 
> 
> My thoughts on that is it was obviously named that after the white settlers moved in and my thoughts are that before that and after that the woods were called something like "yéil at gutu" or "raven of the woods" though that is an athabascan related language that's a lot further up north than I think this takes place. It was the easiest to get translation of.
> 
> So what that means is the woods are a trickster God's home. It could be raven, it could be coyote. tricksters are truth tellers, liars, good and evil. A chaotic neutral if you will. They will kill if they need or want for fun, have you be lost or even have you found. And having new settlers moving in the trickster would go more on the side of "evil" than "good" because of the disrespect. I could imagine it trying to scare off the settlers, but it didn't really work. So that's how settlers would want to call the woods a version of hell.
> 
> That being said I am only saying this because it will never be mentioned in my story, but this background information that mentally compelled me to form aspects of the story and is a moving force for the machination. That also being said the god is using all its power to try and keep the void where it is. So it was weak when the void got Jack or the void happened to Cecil. 
> 
> Anyways this is all just mental flavour text and I wanted to let you in on it?


	3. One for Sorrow

Sammy didn’t feel an impact as his back made contact with the ground. In the back of his mind he knew he was no longer falling, it was more like he just woke up on the ground. All he could really feel was the cold and pain.

The longer he stayed still the more he started to shake and shiver. He wasn’t quite sure if the cold was from the blood loss or from what felt like a breeze that blew past him. It could very possibly be both.

He moved his hands over his wound to try and stem the bleeding. He again was struck with an uncertainty of what he was feeling or what he should do. He realized his eyes were closed and decided to open them. The problem was there as no difference between closed eyes or open eyes. The darkness was vast. He turned his head to the left only to be met by darkness, then repeated the movement to the right and saw much the same. He blinked a few times and on impulse lifted his hand in from of his eyes. Surprisingly he could see it.

“Huh,” he tried to say but his voice only came out as what seemed to be a raspy whisper. He couldn’t seem to make loud noises, so crying out into the darkness was not going to help.

His body started to shake more violently with the cold which upset his wound. He curled slightly inward to protect himself and grumbled in pain. He felt himself getting weaker and wasn’t sure if he could get up. He was going to try though. He used his curled position to get up on his knees, where he tried to take a deep breathe but only started coughing.

When he finally caught his breath he took one of his hands away from his wound and used it to help leverage himself off the ground. He panted and hissed slightly from the movement, but kept his eyes open and alert looking around in the vast nothingness. He realized he was alone. Debbie was gone. He knew she fell in here with him, but the void had separated them and he couldn’t be more pleased. Though he wasn’t sure what he should do now.

That was when the ringing started. In the distance a phone started ringing, not his cell phone, which he could feel solidly in his front pants pocket with his car keys. No this was the ringing of old landlines. Interspersed through the cacophony of ringing a chorus of baby cries started. Then it all cut of with many voices saying hello. Then they faded out, seeming to no longer hold interest in him any longer.

Sammy couldn’t find it in himself to be terrified anymore. He knew in the back of his head that he was slowly bleeding out. The lack of warmth in his limbs was proof enough of that and because of his already ongoing exsanguination, the void was not going to sustain him. It would most likely dump him in Lake Hatchenhaw like the body from the 55 th  Bass tournament.

That was oddly comforting at least his family would have a body to bury.

Shadow Jack had been right though; you did get use to the cold.

He lifted his left hand in front of his eyes again to catch a glint of his engagement ring smattered with his blood.

“I’m sorry,” he barely whispered, “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you, Jack. Here or there.”

The moment he spoke Jack’s name the void noticed. Like a rubber band being snapped back into place the voices started calling out again, using a multitude of voices.

“Hello”

“Hello”

“hello”

“HELLO”

“ _Hellloo_ ”

When he heard Jack’s voice he reacted. He dropped his hand down and looked out into the darkness

“Hello? Jack? I’m here….Jack,” With more force he spoke out.

“I’m sorry. I should have been better,” He cried slightly, desperately, “done more for you. Believed you..been less selfish.”

“Hello,” The void called again in the same tone. Like a vinyl track was being played over and over again.

“Right, right...you’re probably already gone,” he said his voice dropping back to a whisper.

Why wasn’t the damn, stupid void attacking him or messing with him a little harder. He sobbed slightly closing his eyes and at that moment a “Hello,” in Jack’s voice came from in front of him. It sounded like he could touch whoever said that, but it had also startled him. He stumbled backwards opening his eyes only to get a bright flash of light. He shuddered his eyes when he accidentally tripped over his own feet. He expected to feel the landing this time on solid ground. Only to be surprised when he felt warmth and comfort.

He had landed on some kind of cushioned thing. He took a moment to take stock of what was under him it took him it was another moment before he realized it was couch. Was the void starting to torture him now with giving him something nice to take away as he got comfortable. He heard something, no someone pacing behind the couch. Footsteps going back and forth.

“Yes, Lily, Hello,’ It was Jack and he sounded distressed. He listened to the footsteps come around the couch and stop near his head. There was a rustling of fabric and then the possible Jack, or Jack thing started running his hand through his hair, “I think, I think he’s waking up. I think I heard him groan.”

There was a pause, but Sammy could not hear the response that Lily gave Jack. He assumed he was on the phone with her, but Jack was close enough that he heard his breathing change. It started to get distressed and what almost sound like anger.

“No,” He started solidly a little bitter, “He’s not drunk or hungover. Jesus if you are going to be upset with him stop being a fucking hypocrite and be angry with me too.”

Again a pause and fingers running through his hair. God he really missed this feeling.

“Lily, I love you, but stop. You don’t seem to understand, I’ve been trying to rouse him for 20 minutes. He wasn’t responding and he is quite feverish. I was calling to see if you knew anything about seizures or if I should call an ambulance or something. Listen Lil, I just….I needed my big sis. I just have you two right now and I needed your help,” as he is saying this Sammy could hear Jack start to cry.

Sammy takes a few more moments to bask in the warmth of the hand stroking his hair. He tried to think if this was maybe an echo of a memory or if it was just something the void had created to mess with him. He figured the latter because none of this felt familiar. It felt new. The only thing familiar was the hand brushing his hair and the voice.

Sammy blinked his eyes open first staring at the ceiling. This was a familiar, but long since current ceiling. He fluttered his eyes a few more times to get rid of the blurriness and then moved his head under the hand towards the person trying to comfort him. It definitely looked like Jack. He looked behind Jack to see the ridiculously large TV Jack had bought for video games. Sammy grimaced, he had smashed that when the police stopped giving him updates on Jack’s case.

He then looked to the side to the door that led to Jack’s office, slightly ajar letting some of the mid morning sun in. He could remember the lay out because he spent the next 3 months looking through Jack’s research to find any other clues as to what could have happened to him. Most importantly and right in front he focused on Jack, who had his head facing the floor.

“hello,” he whispered.

Jack’s face startled up and even with tears slowly falling from his eyes. Jack looked mostly the same maybe a little more tired with some wrinkles on his face that he couldn’t quite remember. Jack was beautiful. Sammy’s mouth splits into blinding smile and starts to cry at the sight in front of him.

“Baby, Thank god,” Jack says breathlessly, taking the hand holding the phone away from his ear and using his arm to wipe away his own tears. He brings the phone back up to his ear, “yeah Lily, he finally woke up.”

He took a short pause before responding “Of course, I’ll call you if….if he takes a turn. Love you Lil.” he hangs up the phone and places it on the coffee table beside him. Sammy watches with fascination as the phone disappeared.

“Baby,” Jack says and Sammy refocuses as he leans and kisses his forehead “, How you feeling.”

Sammy wants to say great. Wants to say wonderful all because of the sight in front of him. But with a hitching breath he just says “Horrible. It feels like years since I last saw you.”

“Oh, I know, baby. I know,” He soothes him, which is startling and confusing to Sammy. He thought this Jack was a creation of the void. Or an echo, even maybe just a memory playing a bit part. Was this actually Jack in front of him. Sammy looked at him again. This wasn’t how he imagined him. He usually saw him as he had been when he disappeared, but this Jack looks tired. Looks older and looks like some of his clothes are torn apart only held together with barely a thread and a whole lot of will power.

“Jack,” he whispered and they both realized something at the same time.

“You’re..actually here aren’t you, Sammy?”

Sammy just nods.

“Oh,” Jack takes a deep breath, “Oh god why.” not really asking, but moving closer and throwing his arms around him in a hug. Sammy wants to reciprocate oh god does he, but instead he groans and hisses and gasps and Jack pulls back.

“Sammy, what’s wrong.” Jack’s eyes rake quickly over Sammy’s body as he lifts his hand away from his side that is against the couch back revealing his wound.

“Stabbed by Debbie,” he whispered out, “I think I’m dying.”

This truly startled Jack. His eyes hone in on the wound Sammy revealed and thinks he should have seen this sooner. He should have realized sooner that this was the real Sammy, that this wasn’t just the void messing with him like always. He watches only a moment as the blood on his shirt seems to spread slightly more before starting to make a move to cover the wound. There is a sudden knock at the door. Jack pushes Sammy’s hand back down over the wound. And swings his head towards the door.

“Hello?” the voice on the other side calls through the door.

“Debbie,” Sammy growled at the same time Jack stated, “Shadow-maker.”

Jack stood up and moved slightly towards the door. Sammy wasn’t sure if he was losing consciousness, but the darkness seemed to be seeping in from the edges. From what he could see of Jack, the way he fidgeted that was indicative of an on coming panic, he could surmise that the darkness was seeping in for both of them.

From the other side of the door Debbie continued, “Did you think I wouldn’t notice happiness sprouting in the darkness.”

“No,” Jack yelled, not in response of Debbie, Sammy doesn’t think, but possibly in response that they were losing sight of one another. The light faded as Debbie’s laugh started to ring out all around him. It then started to fade the comfort of the couch.

In the distance he heard and eerie child's voice sing out in the dark:

_Make new friends_

_but keep the old_

_One is silver_

_and the others gold_

That was that weird song that Lily had taught them and only when they were drunk. She had said she really tried to repress anything from the girl scouts. What did that even mean.

As the child’s voice faded out too, Sammy realized he was completely alone again. It was dark and he was alone and cold.

He was laid out on his side in the nothingness trying not to start crying again. It was hard. He had just found Jack and he had been unceremoniously ripped away from him again. He blinked or he closed his eyes. It was hard to tell either. It felt like all time and no time passed in this state. He was going to die and Jack would be stuck here.

After what seemed like forever he moved to lay on his back and put his left hand above his face to look at his ring one last time. Though there was no light it seemed to glow slightly as if a light was bouncing off it. Or maybe from within it. The last piece he had of Jack would be the last thing he wanted to see ever.

Then out of the darkness something grabbed his hand blocking the light of the ring from him. It startled him as he tried to get his hand away, but the thing in the darkness held on. It wasn’t hard though. Sammy was losing more feeling through out his body.

“Sammy,” a panicked Jack said “, You’re wearing it. Your ring! I saw it shining. There was a brighter light...I think it was a knife, but I saw your ring. It led me here...it led me home.”

There was a warmth spreading from between their hands was spreading and a light seemed to be seeping through Jack’s fingers. The glow started to surround them and he heard a vicious “no” hissed in a far off distance.

He feels himself passing out.

“sorry,” he mumbled.

While Jack kept stuttering “Sammy. Open your eyes. Baby, please.”

Jack’s voice seemed to be coming from a distance as a warmth spread through him. With another “Sammy,” Jack’s voice was overlaid with bird’s singing.

Jack sounded in awe, “Sammy, I think we’re near the woods.”

After that Sammy heard no more.

________________________

Troy was seated behind his desk at the station. In his office, in the comfortable wheelie seat the old sheriff who would currently go unnamed but thanked for this small little thing. He leaned back in his chair as he removed his reading glasses to rub his eyes. They were tired of looking at paper work, but he was finally catching up with it after all the chaos that had been happening over the last few months.

He had the blinds raised out into the bull pen so he could see the few deputies that were on shift this evening, morning, evening….shift. To see that they were either getting caught up on their own paper work, or refreshing their coffee. He was pleased at how quiet an evening and early morning it had been. Only for the silent streak to be broken by the radio on his desk to crackle to life.

“Go for Sheriff Krieghauser,” He said while lifting the voice box to his mouth and adjusting the knobs on the console, turning it up.

“We have a 942 down on the Eastern Access of Lake Hatchenhaw. Possible mugging. A man complaining of a head injury called in saying his fiance has been stabbed. We need an officer to respond. The fiance is unable to give any more details, possible amnesiac episode from said head injury,” The operator relayed the information in a very professional manner, which half the time didn’t happen. They usually gossiped the information across the line because it wasn’t half as serious as the caller had made it to be. Troy sat up, if the operator was being this precise, this had to be a serious event in their book.

“10/4,” Troy pauses a moment to think of all those in town who were engaged in town. Though it very well could be a couple of out of towners who had gone down to the lake to watch the sun rise over the scenic view, but very few intowners came to mind. He couldn’t stop himself from asking.

“Are the couple by...any chance Kirk and Dwayne Libbydale?”

“No sir,” The operator responded almost immediately.

Troy let go of his breath, allowing himself a sigh of relief. He started to take a sip of his coffee while the radio crackled again.

“No, the guy said his name was Jack Wright.”

Troy started to choke, spitting his mouth full back into his coffee cup. Sputtering a weak “what..?” down the line

“Jack Wright,” There was a pause on the line and a shuffling of paper, “And he said his fiance was that big city AM host of y’alls. You know that Sammy Stevens.”

“Oh no,” Troy muttered to himself, rubbing his eyes even harder. He had jinxed himself plain and simple, but what had they all done.

“An officer is on the way,” he finally responded to the operator.

He moved quickly grabbing his keys and his hat, placing his person radio onto his belt and heading out into the bull pen. He stopped only momentarily at Deputy Lynch’s desk looking at the deputy deciding how to deal with this.

“Deputy Lynch” He stood there trying to get her attention.

“Yessir” She looked up from her computer and the report she had been working on. Most likely something to do with the Williams’ Boys or the one Williams’ Boy who wasn’t currently a pseudo superhero and temporary deputy.

“I need you..” He paused a good moment. He could have her call Lily and get her to the hospital, but that would need more explaining then he had time. Deep down he figured that whatever had happened to Sammy, Lily, Ben and Emily were either out of cell service, not far behind or worse. He hoped not worse so he on the fly guessed where he would need the Deputy most, “I need you to meet me at the hospital.”

“Sir, I was about to...wrap up and go to my gi…”

Troy took a steadying breath before interrupting her, “I realize it is the end of your shift. Something big just happened. Not a loud and boisterous big like robo friends attacking us, but a big that I need you at the hospital. I need you to meet me there while I go look over a scene. It’ll be 30 minutes at most, but I need you to keep any... reporter looking types out and I just feel you need to be there.”

She looked at her computer and then to her phone, like maybe someone hadn’t been responding to her for the last while and she was worried, but she never truly defied Troy before. She then looked back to him.

“Yes alright, I’ll send this report and be outta here right after you.”

“Thank you deputy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this was such a late posting, errands got in the way of editing and posting. 
> 
> If you are reading this, you see why I explained about the forest before tho?


	4. Ten for a Surprise You Should Be Careful Not to Miss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Jack...we lost Sammy…”

Jack is surprised when he took a breath in and then immediately took another. The air felt warm. Nothing like when he was in the void where every breath felt like icicles and tasted of winter and copper. For posterity he takes another gulping breathe in to feel the warmth in his lungs. The air tastes like wildflowers and warmth and he is amazed. 

He could hear and see a body of water over to the one side of him and just woods and trees surrendering every other side around him. Around them. 

“Sammy….I think we’re near the woods…” He is absolutely awestruck. He hasn’t seen light like this in what seems decades or seen anything so serene. Then he looks down to Sammy who hadn’t responded in quite a number of minutes. Looks to Sammy who is still, but warm and bleeding underneath his palm. His fiances eyes were closed and his breathes were shallow.

“Shit baby,” He started to panic, “Baby you can’t do this to me.”

He shook Sammy slightly getting no response. 

  
“Fuck,” he was struck with a sudden pain centered on his eyes. He closed his eyes tight, allowing the pain to wash over him. He only allows this to go on for a few moments before he thinks he is use to it enough, he opens his eyes. He looks down on Sammy again. He was becoming so pale, so very pale. That was when he realized they needed help. Jack looks around the parking lot their in, there were no cars, no sign of people near by. 

Jack starts patting down Sammy’s pockets for his phone or something that would help them. He pats down the hoodie pockets to the front pockets of his jeans to find the device and a pair of car keys. He was thankful it was in one of the front pockets. He worried momentarily if it had been in a back pocket that he would have had to jostle Sammy in a manner that could have hurt him more. He takes a moment to look at the phone. It’s a smart phone that looks a few years more modern than what he recalls. He taps on the screen until it lights up. The date pops up on the lock screen “May 1st, 202X.” That in itself is a lot to unpack. He has been gone for so many years, when he had only been planning to do a research trip for a week at most. 

The lock screen on the phone asks for some type of numerical passcode. Jack thought for a moment of what numbers Sammy would use, ones that no one would know. He typed in their anniversary, because hope springs eternal. The phone goes to the homescreen and once again Jack is struck with the need to cry.

“God, you romantic fool.” 

He sees the a picture of kittens as his background and finally let a few tears drop from his eyes as he hit the dial paid and called 911.

  
____

  
After sitting on the phone with the operator for what seemed to be hours he saw lights in the distance. 

“Ma’am, I see the lights. I’m going to go,” Before the operator could even respond he had hung up, with a quick look at the phone he saw that only around five minutes had passed.

The first vehicle to pull into the empty parking lot was an ambulance. The EMTS rolled out from the vehicle and come over to Sammy and him with practiced ease. Jack watched with owlish curiosity as they got to work immediately. Jack had trouble differentiating between the two who had gotten out of the vehicle all he knew was one worked on checking Sammy’s vitals, while the other was trying to calmly move him away until there was enough room on the other side of Sammy to work. He stood there limbs loose to his side, dumbfounded and unsure of what to do as they cut off his fiance’s shirt.

They flashed lights in Sammy’s eyes while asking Jack questions of which he answered quietly to the best of his ability. While he answering a few questions another vehicle with flashing lights pulled into the parking lot. Emblazoned on the side of it was “Sheriff’s Office”. Jack remembers reading about how small King Falls was before planning the trip so he assumes, possibly incorrectly, that it is the Sheriff approaching him, skirted around the EMTs, not wanting to get in the way as they worked. 

He watched the sheriff look over Sammy on the ground and show a hint of devastation, but the man hasn’t said a word as he stopped his approach right next to Jack. One of the EMTs is saying something to the both of them and Jack can’t hear a word, but feels a hand press something into his hand. He looked down at his hand as the EMT goes back to help his partner. It’s Sammy’s engagement ring. 

He looked back up to watch as they placed a mask over Sammy’s mouth. They had a portable heart monitor that connect to his finger it beats a strange rhythm out adding to the cacophony of noises. The EMTs count as they move Sammy over to a stretcher and Jack isn’t hearing anything other than the strange rhythm beating over every noise. His eyes focused on watching the frantic movement around his fiance. Then there is a moment that Jack will never forget, he startles as the Sheriff places a hand on his shoulder. At that exact moment the heart monitor goes from heart rhythm to a long dull tone to signify...flat.

“No..” He croaked out, “No..no Sammy!” Jack started to move towards the EMTs as they moved at a faster pace, lifting and hefting him into the ambulance. The sheriff kept his hand solidly on his shoulder keeping him from going to him. That’s all it felt like, something else was keeping him from Sammy. Something else was replacing the void in separating them.

Jack can help but react violently. Through panicked breathes and hitches “,You can’t...you can’t...you can’t keep me…”

“You can’t keep me from riding with my fiance!” He sobbed as he tried to force his way towards the ambulance. Troy threw an arm around him halting his progress. 

“Buddy, I am not trying to. I would never keep you from Sammy, but our rigs around here are small and they need all the space they got to help our boy. I will keep pace with the ambulance okay? And we can have a chat on the way over.” The sheriff was already pulling him towards the Jeep emblazoned with “Sheriffs Office” on it. 

Jack let go of the little bout of rage and allowed himself to be dragged over to the car as the door to the ambulance rig was slammed shut. In that moment Jack gave the ring in his hand a squeeze to make sure it was real. It was all real, this was real. The metal in his hand warmed against his palm. He again allowed himself to be place into the Jeep. After his door was shut he watched the Sheriff nod his hat towards the rig while he himself got into the vehicle behind the steering wheel. He flipped a switch which turned on the siren and lights and followed behind the ambulance.

“Now Jack,” The sheriff started, which startled him. Looking over to the sheriff he could see the blood on him that had transferred from Jack himself. Spots of blood sprinkling the sheriffs uniform.

“How…” 

“Well now, I ain’t a mind reader, but you did tell the 911 operator your name.” The Sheriff knew exactly what he was going to ask. That made sense that really did, but then the sheriff continued, “But you are Sammy’s Jack, I’ve seen pictures, he’s told us about you when he could bring himself to. I would have known you anyways.”

Jack sits in relative silence again mulling over the information he’s been given, but it doesn’t make any sense. Not yet. “What…? We’re in King Falls...how would you know Sammy?” 

“That’s not much my story to tell what I can tell you is he came looking for you only a few months after you just up and disappeared. It took a few months I think dealing with the job there and the police, but I am sure he came here looking for you as soon as he physically could. And that’s all I can really say about that right now.” The sheriff side eyed him, while keeping his focus more on the road. 

“Sammy is my buddy Jack. I sure hope you’ll be my buddy too. More importantly I hope you all will still invite us to y’alls wedding, when you’re all feeling better.”

Jack is again startled. Sammy told people. Then there was a relief. Sammy found people he could tell. He would have kept Sammy to himself for forever if that’s what Sammy had wanted. He knew it had been a possibility, but knowing that Sammy had somehow found himself a support network made his heart feel lighter. 

“Okay buddy, I need to do a quick moment of police work. I need you to tell me what happened so I can then take that and make an even more believable story out of it.” 

Jack wasn’t sure where to start, so he decided to start where the most recent vision had started. 

“I had been in the amalgamation of our house in LA that the void had created a long time ago to torture me. Usually an echo of Sammy would be there. Usually the loving one, not the anxious downward spiral one. Then something would happen to him that I couldn’t save him from, but I always tried.” Jack’s breath hitched to remember all the ways the void had killed Sammy.

“So this time Sammy appeared on the couch and I tried to rouse him. He wasn’t waking up so I started going through the check list of things I normally do in these visions. I usually call Lily, my sister, on how to help him. Usually have a fight with her. So those things were normal, but then he woke up. For the first time the illusion of my sister said something helpful and nice and loving. And it turned out it was Sammy, not an echo or a memory. It was my Sammy there in the darkness with me. I had wished for that moment, but dreaded that moment. We talked and then the Shadow-maker tried to destroy our moment of happiness, but Sammy saved me. His love saved me.”

Troy hmmed a moment before responding “I think I heard the gang mention that the Debbie lady was the real Shadow-maker.”

Jack just nodded his head. He looked away from the ambulance to look at the ring he still held in his hand. He closed it again as he felt the Sheriff take a sharp corner. 

“Whelp, buddy this is an easy one to fudge together. New lady to town turns out to be serial kidnapper. She tried to blackmail Sammy with you and he did a dumb thing and went into a dangerous situation alone. She brought you to the trade off, gave you a whack because of something Sammy did and then stabbed him in retaliation. You woke up and called for help and here we are.”

“ Why...would you lie” Jack had gone back to tracking the ambulances progress. 

“Well the county reads our reports and unfortunately they are not from here. So they don’t understand Alien abductions or apparitions choking out a citizen or boogeymen kidnapping good folks. So we gotta dejazz the stories some so the county don’t just send us all up to the looney bin.” 

“Ah,” was Jack’s witty response as they pulled into the hospital. His eyes fell upon Sammy being pulled from the rig and he went stiff. He didn’t know if this was worse than Sammy flat lining at the lake or not, but sometime during transport they had replaced the mask over his face with a tube down his throat. He leaned forward as the morning sun seemed to blaze peace over the bloody scene of his dying fiance. He finally completely lost it throwing his face into his free hand and sobbing.

“If I hadn’t become so obsessed with King Falls this would have never happened. Sammy would be alive and Happy and safe.” 

“Now wait a moment. He is still alive and currently safe and I know for a fact when he wakes up he’s gonna be the happiest I have ever seen him. There was no guarantee that if you all kept living the way you was, that He would be safe or happy or alive. Life is not that simple cut and dry. Nothing was a promise.” 

“Now Sammy’s life may not be the same here as it was back in the big city, it is in fact quite different from what I can see. I can also foresee it getting 100 percent better because our boy is now going to be whole again. His missing pieces has been found.” The sheriff exited the jeep and walked around to the passenger side door opening it and helping Jack from the Vehicle. 

“Let’s go in there and get you talking with a doc. Get you fixed up.” Jack nodded but then stopped a moment.

“Sheriff, I got a quick question.” He said quietly and Troy stopped “What’s your name.”

“Well shoot I didn’t introduce myself yet now have I? I’m Sheriff Troy Krieghauser. You can call me Troy.” He held out his hand to shake Jack’s

“Nice to meet you Troy.” after that Troy led him into the ER and talked to a nurse who started a chart for him. While she started to fill out the basics a deputy had come up to Troy.

“Sheriff, was that who I think it was on the board…” Troy nodded stopping what she had been saying “Has anyone called Ben...or Emily or...Li…”

“This is Jack,” Troy cut her off again only she seemed to gasp a little, “And I’ve been trying.” 

The nurse started to lead Jack towards a curtained off area. He hesitated looking back towards Troy and the deputy. He was anxious, didn’t know anyone here all he had was this sheriff and Sammy who they had already taken somewhere he couldn’t see anymore.  
  
“Alright the nurse is going take care of you. I have to go make a few calls and talk to my deputy here about the situation. I promise you I will be back soon, okay?”

Jack nodded allowing him to be led back to the curtained area. The nurse ran through a gambit of standard health checks on him until a doctor came over to ask him pretty much the same questions. Then the doctor got to his migraine and asked questions about the situation. He stumbled through a lie of being locked in a dark basement for god knows how long and that today was the first time seeing real light in quite some time. The doctor told him that the migraine was possible light sensitivity and it should go away after retraining his eyes in the light. Other than that he had some mild dehydration issues and they had hooked an IV. They said it didn’t look like he needed to be held for the day, but they would see where he was when the IV was finished.

The sheriff, Troy, he had to remember that. Troy he asked to be called Troy and he felt obliged to give him that, came over when the doctor was finished setting up the IV. He pulled up a seat and sat next to the bed in the curtained off area.

“I know this is all a bit much and I can tell you it’s going to get more chaotic soon.” That sounded ominous. 

“I promise though I will keep you updated on Sammy’s status as I can. So far they took him into surgery to repair that stab wound. You know he lost a lot of blood.” Jack could only respond with a numb feeling and a nod “, but he is doing better than how we saw him when they pulled him from the rig. They are going to fix our buddy okay.”

Jack did want to respond, but there seemed to be that chaotic energy coming into the ER like Troy had just warned. A cacophony of voices. The deputy from before popped her head into the curtain.

“Alright Sheriff, they are here. Looks like Lil’ got a whack to the head herself, but everyone else seems unharmed.” Jack perked at the name mentioned, but it couldn’t be he couldn’t be both that lucky and unlucky all together like this. 

The deputy continued, “How do you want to do this.”

Troy looked at Jack and took a deep breath. He seemed to be weighing unseen options before standing up.

“We will start it in the waiting room. Try to mitigate this soon to be shit show,” Troy headed through the curtain only to look back at Jack, “I’ll be back soon.”

Jack started to doze at the sounds of talking not too far off. Then there was the voice of the admittance nurse talking with the deputy and a new patient. The new patient’s voice sounded familiar. 

“Now if you all don’t mind, I sure would like to stay with my girlfriend,” the deputy said in the calmest voice he thinks he’s heard all day.

The nurse made an affirmative noise and went through the checklist of vitals he had to go through himself. With every answer the woman on the other side of the curtain gave he was sure. He was literally having the unluckiest, lucky day of his life. That was his sister on the other side of the curtain.

The nurse said that they had a few tests to run, but they would have to wait till the machines were free to use, but it didn’t look like there was anything overwhelmingly wrong. That a doctor would be over soon.

He started to scoot to the edge of his bed and slide off, moving the IV pole with him as he moved towards the curtain divide facing towards where their voices were coming from. The nurses foot steps moved off back towards the nurses station.

“Now sweetheart, you have to know I was plum scared when you stopped responding to my messages right?” The deputy stated

“I know, I’m sorry I really messed up. I messed up so bad and now and now I lost another….” That was Lily. He was so sure. One hundred and ten percent sure. He clasped his hand on the divide. He had to see her.

“Hold up, I don’t think the situation is as hopeless as you feel it is right now. And I am not saying that just ‘cause I love you.” The soothing voice again.

“I love you too...but” Jack couldn’t stand this. His sister was in so much pain. The only thing he could think of while pulling the curtain back was what every younger sibling thought of. Antagonizing their sibling.

“That is...so Gay.” Jack could see her back was facing him. She didn’t know he was here. He watched the deputy look up at him with an askance look on her face, while his sister’s back tensed up. She was literally going to explode.

“Listen here you limp dick bi..” She started to say with anger while turning around. Good she wasn’t crying any more, but as she turned it was like the steam had all leaked out. She looked confused and elated. Unsure, flabbergasted, “What.”

She looked at him like she was seeing a mirage in the middle of a desert. Like she had been walking without a drop of water for weeks and thought the oasis she was seeing was actually just a mirage. She turned away from the deputy and scooted off the bed towards him. He dropped his hand from the curtain, to rest back at his side.

“Lily,” He whispered towards her as she reached out and touched his face. To make sure this illusion was what she was really seeing. After a few moments of stunned silence she took her hand back and clobbered him in the shoulder.

“Ow Lily! What the hell!”

“YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!” She shouted at him quite loudly before launching herself around his neck in the biggest hug he could ever imagine his sister giving him. And then she started crying again. He curled his arms around her back as best he could, leaning into her warmth. It wasn’t long before there were a number of sets of foot steps bounding towards them. There stood the sheriff and two other new comers. He had no idea who these two were, or what they might have to with the situation.

“Is that..” the man in the pair asked towards the group.

“Yessir,” said Troy in a positive tone. He kept the eye on the two new comers watching their faces fall even more. Eyes red from crying. He wondered what they all had gone through. 

“Oh god...Sammy” the mystery woman exclaimed. She had a hand wrapped around the mans wrist. It looked as though after she said that she had grasped him a little tighter. She pulled a hand up to her mouth. He watched as tears started to fall anew from her eyes.

He felt his sister move in his hug, pulling out slightly. She cocked her head to look up at him, he tore his eyes away from the mystery pair. To look back at his sister askance. Her tears hadn’t stopped. He took his hand and brushed some of the tears and dried blood off of her face. He worried because it looked like Lily was steeling herself to say something heavy. The way she did when his kitten ran into the road; or the time their grandma had passed away; or when she heard from their manager at the radio station in Florida that they had found out about Sammy and him. 

“Jack...we lost Sammy…” When Lily said that slowly he started to panic. Troy had just told him that the surgery was going fine not more than 10 minutes ago. At most. What had happened between then and now.

“What…” He squeaked out looking past his sister to Troy. Troy’s eyes went wide with shock for a moment. Taking his hands off his belt and pulling them up in a soothing pat to the air. 

“No..no..Now hold on one moment. I’m sorry Jack I had been working on getting their story on what happened out they don’t…”

“We don’t what. We don’t what, Troy,” the man said low, with a little anger. Jack knew what he meant and he let his breath go again. 

“I,” Jack started, “We came in with Sammy. He’s in surgery.” 

There was silence. Not an uncomfortable silence, but a processing silence. After the moment was over it was like someone cut the Lily and newcomers’ strings. Lily sagged back into Jack renewing her crying. The woman shoved her face into the man’s neck barely whispering “thank god”. The man kept looking at Jack with some kind of Awe as Troy reached out and put his hand on his shoulder. Knowing that all these people cared so deeply for Sammy, that Sammy hadn’t been in the same continuous isolation he had endured. It made whatever was to come next easier.   
______

  
_If we shadows have offended_  
_think but this, and all is mended_  
_that you have but slumberd here_  
_while these visions did appeared_  
_And this weak and idle theme_  
_no more yielding but a dream,_  
_Gentles, do not reprehend_  
_if you pardon, we will mend_

_And as I am an honest Puck_  
_if we have unearned luck_  
_now to ‘scape the serpents tongue_  
_We will ammends ere long_  
_Else the Puck a liar call_  
_So, goodnight unto you all_  
_Give me your hands, if we be friends_  
_And Robin shall restore ammends_

_midsummer nights dream_  
_Act 5 scene 1_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am slightly sorry.
> 
> I forgot how much a mess the middle of this chapter had been and it took me longer to edit than I had put aside. 
> 
> I am not sorry for the summary of this chapter, cause that's how I sometimes pick stories to read myself. 
> 
> Have a good week! =)


	5. Eight for a Wish

Sammy kept having weird dreams or flashes of reality or was it strange snippets of the afterlife. He really wasn’t sure. He heard Jack yelling about his fiance. That in itself made everything he had just seen and experienced more solid, but mentally because Jack was involved he believed it to be fake. He wasn’t lucky enough to get Jack back, was he. Then Jack’s voice faded with the murmur of Troy. Why was Troy there, that’s weird. Troy wouldn’t be dead would he. Oh god he hoped Troy hadn’t died in a freak robot attack while they were running through the woods this morning. If he had needed their help and they were on some wild goose chase in the woods he would be devastated.

  
The person above him kept saying stuff that sounded medical or technical. All he really knew was it wasn’t someone he knew or recognized. They were spitting out medical words that he could not have imagined on his own. This alone let his thoughts filter back to the thought that this all might be happening and not just a dream state or some sort of afterlife. He felt the pressure of needles being pressed into his skin. He heard a panicked beeping coming from all around him, until the beeping seemed to stop.

  
Then he couldn’t breathe.

  
______

  
Sammy woke up with a gasp. At first he wasn’t sure if his eyes were opened or closed because all around him was just...darkness. He passed a hand over his eyes to see if they were open or closed, but in the end he could not tell either way. His first and only thought was he was back in the void, or was it that he was still in the void. That he never left the void? Was anything that happened real. Was seeing Jack some trick, had he not stumbled into his hallucination.

He stood up from the ground and tried to take a look around, there was the still darkness all around like when he first dropped into the void. The only difference was he didn’t feel any pain, that was strange, there was a reason he should be feeling pain right now. He couldn’t remember why he should feel pain. He looked down at his body and soon realized he couldn’t see any part of it. So he took his hands and patted himself down, trying to find a wound that wasn’t there.

  
That didn’t help in the long run there weren't any wounds, any aches to soothe. There wasn’t even blood on his hands, just confusion. What was real.

From the one side of the darkness there came a laughter. It seemed far away and then it echoed. The echoes of the laughter drew closer and closer until it was ringing in his ear.

“You didn’t think it would be that easy to get away,” a voice that sounded strangely like Debbie whispered in his ear. He tried to say something witty or scathing back, but his voice caught in his throat. Or so he thought. He kept trying to say something or make a noise or even scream but no noise came out as the laughing continued in his ears.

The laughing continued echoing around whatever chamber he was stood. The echoing started to distort and change and suddenly it wasn’t Debbie’s malicious laughter, but it was Jack’s cold laughter.

“You really thought you saved me,” That voice was Jack’s but it was overlaid with someone else. The voices and laughter kept changing.

“You can’t do anything on your own, you failed at trying to find Jack. You don’t even have it in you to sacrifice yourself for him,” that, that was a Lily, Jack amalgamation.

  
“St...stop...it’s not...true..” Sammy couldn’t breath right, panicked gasps started coming out. He couldn’t run from the voices, the void, the darkness, whatever this was. He tried to lift his feet from the ground, but they seem to be glued there. A strange beeping sound started to overlay the voices. Sammy curled down towards his useless feet trying to drown out the noises with his hands over his ears.

  
“Who is Sammy Stevens?” Ben and Lily asked as the beeping turns to an annoying continuous tone and then all the noises stopped. All the voices faded, the tone had stopped. The darkness seemed to fade as well. He opened his eyes to see bright lights casting shadows on the floor directly in front of him. From his crouched position a hand reached into his line of sight. He let his own hands drop from his ears to hang useless at his side as he followed the hand with his eyes to see who it belonged to. Jack sat there hand still reaching to Sammy. Finally Sammy grasped the hand and Jack helped him up.

  
That was when he realized behind him stood Ben and Lily and Emily and behind them stood a crowd of people he called his friends and family. They didn’t look at him with angered or disappointed looks. More with serene and happy looks. Jack leaned in to give him a hug. Sammy couldn’t help but sob into the hug he didn’t know was real or another hallucination. As he did the crowd of his friends and family whispered together, “Not yet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello those who read these notes and my random babbling.
> 
> I know. I know this bit is really short. It was a part of a longer chapter, but because of visual pacing I am separating the two and making two shorter chapters. Second bit of this will be out later This Sunday evening.


	6. Eleven for Health

Sammy woke in stages and varying lengths of time. The first time was the only time that he thinks he was truly alone. He thinks that first time was right after surgery. Which in itself was surprising. He didn’t expect to wake up. He didn’t have time to think about it, it seemed less than a moment after he woke up, he was back under.

-

The second, third and fourth times blended together. He didn’t open his eyes those times, but he could feel multiple presences and hear multiple voices, but he couldn’t concentrate on a single one of them.

____

The fifth time he woke up he doesn’t open his eyes either, but he listened and remembers the conversation going on around him. 

“You’re a hypocrite,” said a voice to one side of him. There didn’t seem to be any actual heat or anger to that voice.

“Hmmm,” asks someone on the other side of him.

“Calling me out for hugging my girlfriend.”

“Oh, how’s that.”

“Exhibit Sammy: Your whole ass fiance lazing about right here.”

There is a moment of silence and then he realized that someone is touching his hand.

“Ah, yes. I am a dirty, dirty hypocrite,” The voice sounds happy, no not just happy, contented.

The hand interlocks with his fingers.

“Jack, when were you going to tell me that you had asked him to marry you?”

There was a little more heavy silence that seemed to permeate all the corners of the room.

“I popped the question between Christmas and New Years. I believe I had been having a more lucid day and remembered I had the ring. See Lily I thought I was going to take my trip to King Falls after the new year and then have all the time in the world to tell you and to get you two in a room together so we could mend those bridges. Now look at you two in the same room and not even sniping one another,” he tried to finish with a joke

“It’s sort of not fun when your partner can’t sass back,” She laughed it wasn’t necessarily a laugh filled with joy, but a hint that it could get there and then paused a moment, “Sammy and I are doing better, you and I have some work to do.” 

“I know Lil and I am willing to spend all the time in the world working on that, now that I have it.”

There was an exasperate sigh followed by a muttered, “dope.” before Sammy drifted back to sleep.

____

The sixth time he took the time to identify the voices speaking around him. He let them wash over him.

“Okay so,” that was Jack, thank god that was Jack, “Aliens kidnapped someone on Sammy’s first day in town. God that must have been miserable for Mr. skepticism here.” 

“Yeah!” Ben, of course it was Ben who else would be excited to relive Tim’s abduction, again, “but like okay, so It’s looking like those weren’t real aliens but like UFO Created by the science cult on the edge of town, because they totally have the remote control to the robot that was create during the abduction. Or maybe it still was aliens, but like the SI made a contract with them? I don’t know it’s like weird.”

Oh god Ben needed to breathe. It seemed like it was just Jack and Ben because he didn’t hear any ribbing remarks from Lily or exasperated sighs from Emily. 

“Let’s move on, tell me about Lincoln and Booth’s apparitions.”

“OOOOOO myyyyy Goddddd,” Ben voice started to creep into the register only meant for dogs. Sammy let the geek talk crash over him and follow him back to sleep. 

_____

The seventh time was when he decided to open his eyes since the beginning of this limbo. He realized that he had a mask over his nose and mouth helping him to breath. He also noticed a water stain on the ceiling tile above his head. He turned his head to the side to see Jack with his one hand in his hand and his other arm and hand splayed under his head all resting upon the edge of the hospital bed. He could see Jack snoring lightly. Beyond Jack and Jack’s chair was a window to the outside. It looked to be after dusk or there about. He could still see some orange mixing with the purple of the fading day.

He couldn’t feel much pain if any and he assumed he was on morphine for now to dampen his pain receptors. The only problem was it made him feel like he was floating and not one hundred percent real. He let his head flop to the other side to see Emily sitting in the other chair in the room. She had her nose in a book it seemed. He squinted and read the title “ _The Crying of Lot 39_ ”. Something lifted his heart to see Emily reading potentially a book for pleasure, instead of research. He lifted his free hand placing it on the railing closest to Emily to try to get her attention, before he tried to talk to her. 

“Hey,” he whispered out. Which made her jump slightly. She smiled at him and he smiled back in response. She placed a bookmark in her book and lifted her hand to cover the one he put on the railing.

“Hey buddy how you feeling?”

“Kind of floaty,” he responded.

“Yeah morphine does that to people. Do you want me to call the nurse or doctor?”

“No, I’m probably gonna go back to sleep in a minute.”

“That’s probably for the best. You know everyone is going to be so jealous that you woke up on my watch.” 

He just smiled at her as a response. Something shifted after a moment. 

“Listen Sammy, I’m sorry…”

“No” he cut her off “No, no. I’m sorry you feel the need to apologize. I would have done what I did even if the outcome was me lost forever in the void. That may seem selfish, but I didn’t want Debbie to win that round.” 

“Thank you then, for saving me.” 

“Thank you for helping save me too,” he mumbled starting to fall back asleep. He felt Emily take his hand and lay it back on the bed. It couldn’t have been a moment more before he was back under.

_____

The eighth time was not long after the seventh. He heard Emily get up from the chair nearest the door.

“Troy will be stopping by soon to bring you to our place. I’m going to go ahead and put fresh sheets on Sammy’s bed and make us some food. He also promised that you wouldn’t have to leave until Ben and Lily got back. Hopefully they slept some.”

“Thanks Emily, I will see you soon,” it wasn’t too long after that the door closed signifying Emily’s departure. 

He felt him adjust his grip on his hand. He listened a moment to Jack shifting in his chair. Listened to him take a breath in and breath out. Listened to him humming something. Listened to him just anxiously making noises in the stillness of the room.

Sammy opened his eyes and turned towards Jack. Jack seemed to notice immediately that Sammy was aware and looking at him and his face shifted from the tense grimace to a smile.

“Good evening sunshine!” He said so happily. 

“Jack,” Sammy whispered back with a smile to match his.

They sat in the silence for a good while, but it was comfortable knowing that neither was truly alone in it.

“Okay so we have like a million things to talk about,” This was a Jack he hadn’t seen in so long that it hurt to realize how much he missed this, “But like we have time now. Or will have time? But like not right now personal time because Troy is totally coming to pick me up. I have been told I need to shower.” 

Sammy let out a little laugh at that.

“Right so this is a weird question since I mean you have answered it before,” Sammy could let Jack go on forever on any tangent and he would never get bored, “alright here goes. Sammy Stevens, will you for sure marry me?”

Sammy let out another startled laugh that turned into tears, “You dope. Of course.”

“I know. I know. It’s just, they gave me your ring while they... worked on you and I thought, I should ask again. Just in case,” He fumbled through his reasoning pulling the ring out with his free hand. He let go of Sammy’s hand to place the ring back onto his finger. Sammy took only a moment to look at the ring seeing that it was cleaned of his blood.

“Jack, you’re my eternity. I would have waited forever just for….just for a moment with you, but I get more than a moment now,” Jack reached out for the ringed hand interlacing their fingers again and using his free hand to wipe his tears away.

“Sammy, you have to know you’re the light in my darkness. The...the fake yous the void created were a false hope...a dim light in an even dimmer room. You, god, you are like a...a supernova. You have to know that,” Jack pulled the hand to his mouth giving it a gentle kiss. Sammy just looked at Jack slack-jawed for a moment before he felt tears roll down his cheek.

“Jack…” He sniffled “, I’m so sorry.” Jack looked shocked over Sammy’s hand. Jack just watched Sammy cry for just an instant before he put his hand down and got out of the chair. Jack stepped close to the bed and leaned slightly over the railing of the hospital bed. He put his hands on either side of Sammy’s head and angled his face towards him. With his thumbs he brushed away the tears.

“Sammy, no, baby no,” he stated in a soothing tone, “Baby there is no reason for you to apologize. And even if there was, we wouldn’t do it now. We have time I promise baby, so much more time.” He leaned further over the bed to kiss Sammy’s forehead. Though it was uncomfortable for Jack he stayed leaning over the bed whispering into Sammy’s ear sweet nonsense to help calm him down. Stroking his hair every once in awhile till his sobs turned into shuddering breaths. When he seemed calm enough Jack took a step back and smiled at him trying not to cry himself. He had cried so much already from his release from the void to the point the doctors said there was still a chance Sammy wouldn’t wake up. He even cried not long ago, when Emily had told him Sammy had woken up and talked to her, but in this moment he would be strong for him. They could cry together later. 

Jack was still standing near the head of the bed, hand petting Sammy’s hair, when Troy walked in. Sammy and Jack both looked over at the Sheriff. Troy brought a sort of baseline cheer into the room when he walked in.

“Well hello there sleeping beauty!” Troy smiled placing his hands on his hips, “We were wondering when you were going to wake up.” 

Sammy looked back out the window it looked liked it had just gone dark, “It’s only been like...a couple of hours hasn’t it?” 

“Little longer than that, good buddy. ‘Bout a day and a half,” Troy responded. Sammy looked from the window to Jack.

“You’ve been here the whole time…” He asked incredulously.

“I had my own bed last night!” Jack interjected excitedly, only to watch Sammy’s face fall slightly “I..uh I had an IV for dehydration and they had to give me another...so they decided to watch me over night. I’m mostly okay now, I’m going to go sleep in your bed when Lily and uhmmm...Ben?...Ben! Get here. So you see I wasn’t Florence Nightangaling over your bed all night.”

“...Not all last night?” Troy asked quizzically towards Jack, “It should have been not at all last night, Ben had Sammy duty last night and didn’t mention any visitors.”

“I may have snuck in...while Ben was asleep?” Jack had continued the petting even while being caught. Jack had always been a great multitasker. Sammy couldn’t help but start a raspy laugh over how ridiculous this all seemed. Troy had kept an eye on Jack as he came to the other side of Sammy’s bed. He gave Sammy’s shoulder a pat before taking a seat in the spare chair in the room. 

“Then I guess it’s good that you are going to a house miles away from here where you can’t sneak in instead of resting,” Troy hmmed, raising his eyebrow towards Jack. Jack finally looked away shamefaced. Sammy smiled and closed his eyes. After all the emotional turmoil and constant feeling of warmth and comfort he was starting to drowse. He once again let the voices of his fiance and his friend wash over him following him into a haze of sleep. 

_____

The next time he woke up Jack was gone and he wanted to panic until he remembered the conversation he had, had with him. Jack was going back to the house. Jack was going to go to sleep. Jack was here.

“Evening Shotgun,” That dragged him out of the spiral he was circling only to send him into another. He started to take quick breathes while his eyes darted around the dark of the room. There was a light on that was no better than a night light barely illuminating the room.

“Sammy...Hey Sammy, I’m sorry,” A hand grasped his arm lightly trying to get his attention. The voice calling to him was familiar too. A light to the side the hand was grasping flicked on “Sammy, I shouldn’t have called you that. Sorry. Sorry.”

His eyes finally adjusted to the new brighter light to see the person sitting next to him. It was Lily. Not a darkness creature, but Lily. He looked to his side and realized Ben was curled up in the other chair snoozing his head off. He took a moment and caught his breath while Lily spoke again, but louder.

“Ben. Hey Shortstop!” Lily spoke loudly enough to wake Ben, who nearly startled out of the chair.

“Yeah..wha..” He grumbled rubbing his not really taking care of what was happening in the room around him.

“Go get the nurse, Remember we promised…” Lily was cut off.

“To get the nurse when Sammy woke up again.” Ben started to get up to preform the duty still not comprehending what he had even said.

“Yup,” Lily said while rubbing Sammy’s arm in comfort.

“Sammy’s awake?” Ben finally stopped and looked to the bed to see Sammy look back at him.

“SAMMY!” Ben nearly launched at the hospital bed.

“Hey buddy,” he replied lightly trying not to let him in on the panic he had had just moments before he woke up.

“Sammy! Oh Right! I’ll be right back! I gotta get the nurse!”

“I’ll be right here, buddy, not going anywhere,” Ben darted out of the room so quickly Sammy just shook his head. Lily squeezed his arm slightly to garner his attention. He took her in and landed on the gauze that was over her left eye.

“Ah, are you alright,” he took his hand to wave over towards her head. She startled slightly and touched the edge of the gauze with her free hand.

“Yeah I’m fine, I didn’t have to stay in a hospital like some people I know,” She paused a moment and made a face of contrition, “Look...I’m….sorry...that.”

“No,” He said to stop her. She looked taken aback and then angry at that.

“No? No. You don’t get to just say…”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

“Because of me you were stabbed by a horrible monster thing and dropped into a nightmare void! Just because I heard Jack.”

“You are pretty full of yourself. Sure we wouldn’t be out there if you weren't so head strong and gun-ho, but I did make the dumb decision of putting myself between someone else and a fucking long ass kitchen knife. Where the hell did she get that kitchen knife….What if...What if she stole it from a Granny Frickard’s restaurant...you think we could pin this all on Greg.”

Lily looked off put and then thought about what he had said and started giggling, “Yeah I think we could. Listen Stevens, I’m glad you didn’t get sucked into a horrible void of nothingness for years on end. I was…” She stopped not completely sure or comfortable with what she wanted to say, wanted to feel, “I was scared. I was scared I was losing you again. Losing you like I lost Jack.”

“I was scared too, but if I had stayed in the void I wasn’t going to be rid of you. Seems Jack hallucinated talking to you a bunch," he wasn't sure he wanted to let her know that he was pretty sure he was going to die in the void. None of them had to know that. It hadn't happened and would only lead to more tears and conversations about what-ifs that didn't happen.

Lily got a strange smile on her face, “He’s not getting out of that now! We are going to have so many talks he’s going to wish I was a hallucination.”

Sammy smiled back at her as Ben came back with a doctor and a nurse. They went over a lot of medical stuff that he was going to need repeated again. They outlined his treatment and care for the next couple of weeks, which he hated. Stuck in one place unable to do things for himself for a couple of weeks. That sucked. Then the doctor said there would be weakness on the side he was stabbed on so he would need to do physical therapy for a while after being released and probably would have to use a cane for the first few months after being released. Lily snorted from his one side whispering “Old man Stevens” to him and Ben had a glint in his eye that he really didn’t appreciate.

They also said that he probably would still need to sleep a lot, so not to force himself to stay awake, but allow his body the rest to heal up. After it was all detailed out, they left him to the ministrations of his friends.

The moment the medical professionals left Ben went on a tirade of how irresponsible Sammy had been. That he could never do that again and he was disappointed that he had to get that promise again after what had happened when he first went to the void. Sammy and Lily both sat quietly letting Ben have his say.

“So we think the Forest time travels,” Ben said in all seriousness at the end of his rant.

“I’m sorry, What,” It must be the drugs, he thought. The drugs made him imagine what Ben had just finished on.

“Okay so hear me out,” it wasn’t drugs, it was 100 percent Ben Arnold conspiracy corner, “Emily never sent the text messages tell me where they went.”

“That’s ...not time travel, but is really strange…”

“Okay so not only time travel, but messing with electronics. Like...the woods sent us or called us exactly when it needed to with exactly what we needed to hear or see to be where it wanted us.”

“So...the woods wanted me to get stabbed….” Sammy eyed Ben suspiciously.

“I mean….possibly? But not in a bad way.”

“The woods...wanted me stabbed not in a bad way…Lily are you sure Ben didn’t get smashed into a tree too,” He looked over to her and she shrugged and made a face he didn’t exactly like.

“So what I heard Jack say to me was ‘I think we’re near the woods’ and Jack said that’s what he said when you guys dropped outta the void. So maybe it is crazytown, but it could be….possible,” she shrugged again.

“I think I did hear him say that….” Sammy wondered a bit “I’m not sure I was pretty out of it…”

“Okay andddd….like you can’t get calls near the Devils Doorstep...but like Troy called me...saying I needed to get to the hospital cause something had happened and like he wouldn’t tell me anything and everything was high strung and you had just fallen into the void and we thought we were never going see you again…”

“Ben, Breath,” Sammy interrupted him, “It’s okay, we’re okay.. what ever the reason all this happened I am sure you...and..and Jack,” Sammy paused and smiled slightly, “I am sure you two can conspiracy theory this out, but for now let’s talk about something else.”

Lily, Ben and him started to talk about how the late night show would be run while he was out of commission, which led to discussion of a kitten Lily had seen from Katie’s apartment earlier that day. Ben then pulled out his phone and started playing funny cat videos for them. It was only a few videos in when Sammy finally drifted off back to sleep. This was the safest and happiest he had felt in years and he hoped it would last a long while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, this is almost finished. Yes I named the story after a sappy thing in this chapter because when I was thinking of naming it I was drawing a blank. I am not sorry.
> 
> Since you made it this far and are still reading this wanna hear a story?
> 
> I grew up in a small mountain town where weird things happen. Not alien abduction weird (maybe) or cult weird (...actually can't say that with 100 percent accuracy..) Just weird in a human sense. This story is not about that strangeness. We did not have an AM radio station though, you had to travel over to the other side of the mountain for that. 18 years ago I was apart of a volunteer group and we were promoting a project we were doing for town and trying to get more people to volunteer, so we went on the early morning AM radio show a town over. I was not the leader of the group or in any leadership positions, but I went with them to this. We took donuts to be nice to the early morning DJ. While standing in the waiting room the producer talked to us with where we would stand and generally what questions would be asked. So I am not great in the morning unless I have barely slept because I am a bit of an insomniac and thrive on very little sleep and I have all this energy. Everyone else is low energy or scared as hell because they are about the be on the radio. 
> 
> We go into the recording studio, The producer and DJ had also bought donuts, donut bribes were all around. The DJ Starts asking questions in a sassy way to the pres of the group. She freezes up and no one else wants to step up. I of very bad decision making and high energy step up and start talking. The DJ Sasses my energy I sass back. I have a informative but hella sassy talk for local towns about volunteer work in the area on a AM radio show with a man probably 15 to 25 years older than I. 
> 
> I literally haven't thought about this in years, not until I started listening to King Falls AM, it really brought up random memories of my past.


	7. Two For Joy; Nine For a Kiss

Healing was not a straight line for Sammy. After the first day he was awake he ended up getting a high fever. The doctors didn’t seem too worried, but it was a sweaty painful hell. After a few days with the fever he went back to just being in pain. They had been cutting back on the pain pills so he wasn’t so floaty any more, but that just meant he felt more of the little aches. The only plus to the situation was he was hardly ever alone.

There was a rotating schedule of Ben, Emily, Jack and Lily for the evenings. Jack tried to be there as much as possible, but he was often dragged out of the room, only twice forcibly, to go home and get some rest, or even just go outside for some fresh air. Some evenings he had two people staying because of Jack’s stubbornness. Sammy did not mind one bit. On the other hand Ben had the least amount of evenings because of the radio show and he complained the most about it. He tried to say how he could just put a “Best Of..” on and stay more nights. Lily and Sammy ran a two pronged attack to tell him how silly, (idiotic in Lily’s words) that would be. They kept Emily as a special attack for any night it didn’t seem to be working on Ben.

Each of evenings that one of his friends stayed was had a different atmosphere. Jack would climb in bed with him to cuddle and talk and sleep with him, after the first time he was caught he got smart about it and timed the nurses visits. After two nights of observation he wasn’t caught in Sammy’s bed again. Ben also climbed in the bed chatting up a storm most nights, but he wasn’t as diligent about it finding out when the nurses were going to come in and got in trouble every single night he was there.

Lily if she fell asleep in the room would do it with her feet on the bed or her head pillowed at the end of the bed. When Lily was there she would put on Podcast just to listen to Sammy complain about them. Secretly he enjoyed some of them, but he made a promise. A dark, dark promise to himself never to tell her this. He could not risk her having such leverage over him. 

Emily never fell asleep on her night watches, as far as he could tell. This did worry Sammy that he asked her about it. “I feel safer knowing some one is watching over me when I sleep when something bad’s happened to me. Benny does it for me after I’ve had a bad day.” She explained to him with a sweet smile.

“Ben is good like that,” He agreed.

So most evenings when Ms. Potter watched over him she brought books. Sometimes she brought books for both of them to read and they would enjoy the comfortable silence. Other evenings when She had heard it had been a rough day for him, be it in physical therapy or just an off day, she would bring just one book and read to him. He really appreciated Emily Potter on those days.

His hospital room during the day was a revolving door of friends and acquaintances from town. And with friends and well wishers came cards and gifts. Some bundles of flowers that died before the end of the week and would be replaced by more flowers. Ron Begley snuck in a plate of pancake puppies, Troy snuck in brownies his wife made and Mary brought get well pictures the kids drew as well as a cinnamon roll for him. He really appreciated the sweets after all the bland hospital food he had, had to endure over the weeks. When he looked at the gifts, the cards, the snacks and the flowers, he realized that this was what it meant to be home. A feeling he hadn’t been feeling since Jack had disappeared, but now he had the feeling twofold and felt silly to ever think he would never feel that again.

It was over three weeks after he had subsequently been stabbed and brought in to the hospital before he was released. Jack was helping clean up Sammy’s room while he dressed to go home. And by cleaning he meant Jack was reading ever single card. Sammy sat on the edge of the bed pulling a cardigan on when Jack made a strange noise.

“What’s up,” he questioned without look back at the man. 

“This bear is weird…” Jack still made a distressing noise, “Why does it say ‘Only the strong survive. Congrats on continuing being Strong.’ That’s so weirdly specific, is it a threat.” Jack kept looking from the bear to Sammy and back again.

He looked back slightly at the bear and Jack, “Just throw it away.” 

“Sammy if this is a threat, We need to take care of it,” Jack seemed to be stressed out over the bear, especially since Lily had brought up the journal and death threats while Sammy couldn’t escape. 

“It’s not,” He turned away to look down at the shoes they brought him. They brought him his easy slip-ons that he wouldn’t have to bend to get on. Thank. God.

“But!” Jack tried to get Sammy’s attention.

“It’s just from Gwendolyntheracistwitch…” He groaned out before Jack could get really worked up.

“What...Gwendolyn...the what…”

“The...the racist witch, it’s not a threat, trust me. Hey you’ll probably get to meet her...unfortunately,” Sammy lowered his head into his hands to rub his eyes.

“I...don’t...want to?” He said while looking at the bear.

“Too bad?” Sammy shrugged and sighed, “anyways chuck it in the fuck it bucket and move on.” 

Sammy heard the rustle of the garbage bag followed by Jack pattering around the room once more. He had moved to checking the drawers for anything he had missed on the first collection walk through. Some dead flowers followed the bear into the garbage followed by some random trash that had accumulated over the past three weeks. All Sammy could think was any minute now Ben should be back with their ride outta there. Jack found one last card in one of the drawers. He laughed slightly catching Sammy’s attention again.

“What…?”

“This card’s kind of funny. ‘Don’t worry you’ll be back to normal soon enough. Well, normal for you anyway. Hang in there.’” 

“Oh god, put that with the bear. Right. Now.”

“What why,” He asked as he opened the card.

“Jack, please I am begging youuuuu,” Sammy moaned while he refused to look to Jack.  
“Mayor Steven Grisham, Sammy, you know the mayor here? That’s so cool! We can’t throw this away,” It was at that unfortunate moment that Ben walked back in with the wheel chair.

“Know the Mayor. Why Our Sammy is down right personal with the Mayor. Our Sammy Suplexed the mayor at the Annual Best Small Town in America celebration,” responded Ben pleased as punch as he wheeled over to Sammy, who was groaning in displeasure as he allowed himself be helped into the chair.

“Noooooo”

“Sammy! You Suplexed the mayor!”

“He deserved it,” Sammy muttered glumly, without looking back to his fiance.

“He really did,” Ben agreed sagely, nodding slightly at the memory, “Throw that hunk-a-junk away and let’s hit the road, Jack.”

Jack glared at Ben for the pun, but dropped the card into the waste basket. He then picked up the box of gifts and cards and placed them into Ben’s hands taking reign of the wheel chair. 

“I will get that story,” Jack maneuvered the chair out the room that had been his for the past three weeks and didn’t look back. 

“Oh, You will, and you will see a video of it too,” Ben replied excitedly as the door closed behind them.

____

  
Sammy used a cane the hospital had provided to get into the house with Jack hovering on his other side, just in case, he said. Ben had rushed ahead to get the door. Sammy was pleased to see there were only their cars parked in the driveway when they got there, meaning there was no surprise welcome home party. He was feeling rather tired and wanted to take a nap. The doctors had warned him he would still need to rest a lot at home and not to over do it. 

When he walked in he could see Emily and Lily sitting on the couch. Ben dropped the box of gifts and cards by the door as Jack ushered him to one of their overstuffed chairs. Jack sat on the arm of the chair. It clearly looked like he wanted to climb in the chair with him, but he was just as happy to be near him. He was, on the other hand, a bit wary of the looks on the girls faces. Even as Emily started to talk.

“We got you welcome home gifts,” She said with a smile on her face. 

“I...don’t need them? Whatever they are, I’ve gotten more than enough,” Sammy relaxed slightly leaning into chair.

“Stevens, you say thank you and smile when some one gives you a gift,” Lily pretended to be put out and Sammy couldn’t help but take the bait, especially as Emily’s smile widened. He darted a quick eye over to Ben who was still standing, hoovering behind the couch, just behind the girls.

“Even if it’s a knuckle sandwich.”

“Especially then,” Lily was quick to return the volley, “anyways.” She and Emily held their hands out to Ben and Ben placed long items in their out stretched hands. He looked at everyone of them to realize they were all holding similar items. 

“Oh god,” Sammy leaned his head back against the cushioned back of the chair. 

“That’s right Old man! We got you decorated canes so you could accessorize with every outfit,” Lily was holding out her cane first, poking him with it till he lifted his head and took the cursed item from her. The cane she had attacked him with might have once been a plain, boring old thing, but now from top to bottom it was bedazzled in a technicolor rainbow. He was sure it could be used as a disco ball with the way the living room light bounced off the little fake gems.

“This is already too much,” He dead panned while still keeping an eye on the obtrusive thing. The other four in the room snickered. 

“Mine next,” Ben said excitedly, leaning over the back of the couch and subsequently over the girls holding out the cane. Sammy couldn’t help but grumbling some more as he grabbed it from him. This one was decorated from top to bottom in cryptids and ufos. He looked from the cane to Ben and back again.

“Did you paint this yourself,” he asked while spotting a little big foot giving two thumbs up.

“I sure did. I even included Kingsey!” it was a veritable wheres waldo of cryptids, Ben and Jack would probably use it as an excuse to explain which ever one of the little images caught their eye to tell a story about it. Sammy shook his head and leaned the canes against the one side of the chair where the one from the hospital was currently taking up residnce and looked to Jack. He smiled and handed him his cane.

The thing was completely decorated with hearts. Even the rubber stabilizer on the bottom of the thing looked like a heart. He gave a small smile at the cute cane. 

“I have a reputation to maintain,” Sammy said not looking up, but still smiling at the thing in his lap. 

“I have your reputation to destroy,” Jack cheered happily from his side. 

“You’re too good for that, you can only make me look better,” He looked up enamored with the man next to him. Jack leaned down with a smile and kissed Sammy and Sammy kissed back.

“Oh god,” Lily cried from the other side of the couch, “I am going to destroy both you. Not reputations, just yourselves.”

Sammy shrugged leaving one last peck on the corner of Jack’s mouth before leaning away. He placed the heart filled cane with the others. He looked to Emily who handed over the last cane, thank god. It was a simple wooden one. It looked to be made with dark wood with a nice lacquer, probably an antique. 

“Thank you for getting me a nice normal cane, Emily,” this cane looked like the one he would use the most.

“It’s not,” She exclaimed excitedly, “It’s a sword cane!”

“I’m sorry what,” Sammy look wide eyed to Emily.

“Pull the handle,” He had noticed the can had felt heavy. He gave the handle a good pull and from with in the cane a blade was revealed. He looked at the sharp and over to Emily with still widened eyes.

“It’s just to make us feel better. You know in case an old grandma attacks you while you are out,” Emily joked, but there was a serious line to her smile. She was serious about using this as protection and he would feel better to have it around too. He slid the blade back in and placed it with the others. 

“Thanks for these...thoughtful...gifts,” he tinged it with a little bit of sarcasm, but he found it cute. He started to scoot off of the chair grabbing the hospital cane. He stopped a moment to let a hint of pain pass by, but finally got up, “I am going to take a nap, this all took a bunch outta me.” 

“Come on why didn’t you grab one of our canes!” Ben asked as he watched him move around the chair towards his bedroom. 

“I don’t want to make someone jealous on my first day back, obviously,” Sammy smiled. 

“Have a good nap Sammy, I’ll send someone in when lunch is ready,” Emily said over the couch with a genuine smile again.

Sammy took his time heading to his bedroom. He had hobbled all the way to the bed before he realized he wasn’t alone. He didn’t turn, assuming it was Jack. He just stared at the bed as he heard the door close behind him. He heard him patter around as he finally decided how he was going to sit on the bed. A moment later Jack was in front of him with PJS and helped him get ready without a word. 

“Are you joining me,” He asked when he was finished dressing, looking around the room. He had half expected his room not to have changed since the last night he had spent there, but there were changes all over. Proof that Jack had been using the room over the past few weeks. He saw the closet open with familiar clothes joining his, he saw the boxes that had been filled with Jack’s things empty and discarded on the floor of the room. He even noticed things slightly redecorated. Books and Jack’s night things on the night stand that had always traditionally been his side of the bed. He even noticed the night light now in an outlet near the door. He understood it and was not going to question Jack about it, was even thankful for it even if he had only spent an hour or two in the void.

“I’m going to read for a bit, but if you’re okay with the light on,” Jack looked over to Sammy and Sammy looked back at him just ready for the nap. He moved his legs into the bed, with his feet under the covers bunched at the end of the bed. He thought about Jack reading when he was going to sleep. It was how they use to spend there evenings, the idea of it alone felt like warmth and comfort. He glanced over to Jack who was standing there unsure of himself, waiting for Sammy to respond.

“Yeah, of course,” he mumbled already half way to sleep. He closed his eyes and listened to the door close, finally, and a few moments later feeling the bed shift on the other side. Sammy shifted to his side, with his uninjured side underneath him, blindly moving his face into Jack’s hip and arm across his lap. Jack tensed slightly underneath Sammy, but only for a moment. He felt Jack pull the covers up over them. Jack then shifted, clicking on the light on Sammy’s nightstand that was behind his back. He then settled again, opened a book and placed his other hand in Sammy’s hair.

“Sleep well, baby,” Jack murmured above him. Sammy’s only response was a grumbling that turned into a soft snore.

________

  
Over the first two weeks of being home Sammy fell into a special pattern with each resident of the house. Whenever he took a nap in the middle of the day Jack would join him, even if only to read. It was comforting with how familiar it was, it was also comforting because Jack was there whenever he woke up again. In the mornings Emily would cook breakfast, mostly because she was the only other one in the house who would take the time to make a healthy breakfast. Breakfast would be Emily, Ben, Jack and him. Lily would already be at the studio by the time they were having breakfast. 

Most mornings after breakfast Ben would go to bed and Emily and Jack would take him to physical therapy and every other day it seemed they would stop for froyo as a treat for doing well in therapy. After therapy and froyo most days Sammy would go back to his room to nap, but as he got stronger he would settle on the living room sofa to watch something with Jack and Emily. He usually fell asleep half way through curled up with the two. Then it was normally time for lunch and Ben would be up by then. After lunch Jack would go to the studio to work on production and copy edits of all the shows of the studio. He also said he worked on archival work and writing out schedules for the afternoon shows. 

Emily also headed out most afternoons to do some work. She was busy with the other employees of the library working in a temporary location trying to figure out how much of their collection was lost and writing up grants to help build a new library. The town government itself was taking a hands off approach from the library which was frustrating because they didn’t have money in escrow or donation to help with the rebuild. With this laissez faire attitude Emily had also decided to work towards privatizing the library so the local government would no longer be able to create policy for them.

Ben and Lily would spend the afternoon bickering what they should do. Some days they would sit in the Conspiracy Cave and rib on Ben and Jack’s new theory. Some days Lily would try to work on getting Sammy to agree to do a podcast, that he had a voice and attitude for it. Other days they would play video games and board games, which while Lily was outwardly competitive and Ben energetic and wanting to prove how good he was, Sammy would sow secret chaos to rile the others up just to make it interesting. Some days Sammy got them to go sit outside and take in some sunshine, which was something both Ben and Lily looked like they avoided often. 

On one cooler afternoon when they were sitting outside they had a small bonfire. The fire had been going for a half hour or so before Lily was struck with inspiration. She ran into the house and seemed to be go for a good five or so minutes before returning with what looked to be Sammy’s old journals. Sammy was afraid that she was going to bring the letters up again or read them out for fun in front of Ben, but instead she held it out towards the fire. For a split second he didn’t want her to do it, but only for a second. He got up from his comfy lawn chair and took the book from her and said “Okay,” While dumping the journals into the fire himself.

“That a boy Stevens!” She patted him on the back with a jovial laugh. 

“Woooooo!!!!” Ben cheered from his seat “LET THAT SHIT BURNNNNNNNNN.” 

Sammy turned towards Ben, now a little fearful of potential firebug status, but then nodded his head, “Yeah let this past burn.” 

By dinner time Jack and Emily would be back usually with some take out because no one ever wanted to cook and Sammy wasn’t up to it yet. Lily would pass on dinner with them most nights to go have dinner with her girlfriend. On nights deputy Katie worked Lily would take her dinner, on nights she didn’t, Katie would cook at for them at her apartment. 

After dinner Sammy and Jack normally went to their bedroom where Jack would stay up and read for a little while and Sammy would cuddle into his side while he fell asleep. Some nights he didn’t go to sleep right away. Those nights were when Lily came home and invited herself into their bed to watch one of the many shows they use to watch in college. They would pop it in their rooms dvd player and just relive the comfort of the days before they went to work. Ben and Emily always invited them to watch a movie, but they thought it best to let them have time alone. Time for just the two of them to be together before Ben had to go into work. 

_____

  
Just over two months after he had been stabbed, fallen into the void, saved his fiance, fallen out of the void and nearly died, he went back to work. It was easier then he expected. He missed falling asleep with Jack something fierce, but Jack was at home and that made him feel warm. Home was something small before, but now it was Jack, it was Ben, it was Emily and Lily and Troy. It was his friends. It was the town even. Home was so much larger then it had ever been before in his life and that warmed him inside and out. There were things they needed to deal with, like closing the void forever, dealing with the manists, dealing with the SI, and planning a wedding, but those were something for tomorrow. Or maybe the next day. They would solve their problems eventually.

For now Sammy leaned towards the microphone taking in a breath waiting a moment before speaking, “Good evening and thank you for listening to King Falls Am. Now don’t adjust your settings, this isn’t another ‘Best of’, it’s the real Sammy Stevens here, and I have missed you King Falls….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we are at the end. I know it is once again late, but I just kept wanting to add just one more thing.
> 
> I am proud that I finished this. So I wanna thank everyone who read this, commented on this, kudos it, and just plain enjoyed it. Thank you =)
> 
> I am also suprised at how long this is, because the original scenes all written out were only 5k, but here we are. Thanks for suffering this roller coaster with me. 
> 
> I am sorry about the sappy things I wrote near the end! BUT NOT REALLY.
> 
> Finally the titles of the chapters were brought to you by the nursery rhyme "One for Sorrow" about spotting magpies. I used the Lancashire count of 13 and in full it goes like this:
> 
> One for sorrow,  
> Two for joy,  
> Three for girl,  
> Four for boy,  
> Five for silver,  
> Six for gold,  
> Seven for a secret,  
> Never to be told.
> 
> Eight for a wish,  
> Nine for a kiss,  
> Ten a surprise you should be careful not to miss,  
> Eleven for health,  
> Twelve for wealth,  
> Thirteen beware it's the devil himself.
> 
> Thanks again =)


End file.
